Stacie's Barn

By David Miller

Stacies Barn is tucked away out of sight along a private driveway, so that you are unlikely to have seen it unless you have made a point of going there.

Stacies Barn, just right of centre in the photo at the end of the curved driveway.

The building was once part of the farm called The Grove, as can be seen on the 1887 Ordnance Survey Map.

Grove Farm in 1887. The driveway beside the Brook once led to the farmyard. It is just possible that the pink colouring signifies that the building is residential.

It is a substantial timber framed structure in remarkably good condition, and was in use as a barn or store until its conversion and extension into its present form in about 2000. There is a further aerial view of the whole Grove Farm site here.

The history of the building is open to some doubt, but is of great interest nevertheless. The present house is named after the former owner of the land in about 1686, named on the Chicheley Map of the village.

The 1686 Chicheley Map. Houses were incorrectly drawn as being on the edge of each plot.

Sketch Map made in 1836.

Grove Farm, opposite the Hurdleditch turning. From the 1950 Land Use map.

The actual location of the building among the other farm buildings is possibly shown on the 1887 Ordnance Survey map, but it is not clear. The sketch map prepared in 1836 for the Enclosure Award proceedings is better, and shows the building as being at one end of a range of farm buildings, right next to the (then unstraightened) Brook.

The Grove development and Stacies in 2012. See how the Brook has been straightened out!

It may well be the item No. 43 on the Land Use Survey map of 1950.

The British Listed Buildings website suggests that this was once the crosswing of a medieval house, and there is much in the house structure which supports this. Some of the walls and ceilings still bore traces of plasterwork, which would have been unusual in an ordinary farm building not used for living in, and there were three diamond mullioned windows in the original structure, which again pre-supposes proper windows, rather than the ventilation or light apertures which one would find in a farm barn. The scantlings of the timbers are substantial, but this would be normal both for a farm building as well as for a house of, say the 1600's. On the other hand, there are no traces of any heating arrangements (most medieval houses would have had a fireplace and chimney added at some time), nor is there any suggestion that this building was in fact part of a larger house, since there are no obvious doorways through to a further part of a house. The jetty, which indicates that there has always been a first floor as part of the structure, would have been more usual for a house than for a barn. Perhaps the lower part was used for storage, and farm workers were accommodated upstairs.

By 2000, the property was no longer in use for either purpose, and the farming business was discontinued. The first floor was ruinous, and the rest of the building needed much work. Following completion of his housing development now known as 'The Grove,' the developer turned his attention to saving this property.

The old weatherboarding was stripped off, and softwood studding was applied over the existing structure to thicken the walls up. This allows for better insulation, but for the old timbers still to be seen on the inside. The property was then re-weatherboarded. An extension was added with the necessary modern facilities.

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